


Build a Bears Are Terrifying!

by loveneverfails



Category: Big Bang Theory
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-26
Updated: 2011-05-26
Packaged: 2017-10-19 19:24:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/204393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveneverfails/pseuds/loveneverfails
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raj: If you don't like this stuff, let's just go next door and build her a bear.<br/>Sheldon: I told you before, bears are terrifying!</p><p>Sheldon and Penny finally go to Build a Bear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Build a Bears Are Terrifying!

It takes everything Penny has to get Sheldon into the store. He wanted to go next door to buy the birthday gift - back to Bath and Body Works - but Penny wouldn't hear of it. "She's going to love this, Sheldon. Trust me!" she tells him. And so he does, because if he's learned anything over the last few years, it's that Penny (although not always), can be right. Sometimes. They walk into the store holding hands - more to keep Sheldon's anxiety under control than any sign of physical affection - and immediately he gasps in horror as his eyes catch sight of the unstuffed bears laying in bins along the wall. "What is wrong with these people?!" he shrieks loud enough that a few parents turn to stare at him. "Why would they ever think _this_ ," he pauses to hold one of the floppy, unstuffed bears in his hands, shoving it towards Penny's face for her to see. "Isn't terrifying to children?! It's terrifying to _ME_!" Penny does her best to calm him, then directs him towards the clothes rack and away from the unsettling image of fuzzy, floppy teddy bears. All she can do is shrug helplessly when a few mothers pass by her and she shakes her head as she goes to pick out the perfect bear. "Such a wackadoodle," she murmurs under her breath with a soft sigh, but she's wearing a smile as she watches Sheldon describe why the astronaut costume isn't accurate to a helpless teenage boy who works there. "But he's _my_ wackadoodle."

Twenty minutes later, Penny presents Sheldon with a semi-stuffed brown bear. It's got shape now and doesn't look nearly as terrifying, but Sheldon still won't touch it. "It's not gonna bite you," Penny laughs, which only makes Sheldon scowl further. "You can't be sure of that," he says slowly, still giving a dirty look to the bear's glossy black eyes. "Oh no!" Penny gasps and she finds it hard not to laugh and break character. "I think you're right!" Teasingly, she brings the bear to Sheldon's neck and makes loud kissy noises, smacking her lips each time the bear touches Sheldon's skin. "Mwah, mwah, mwah!" They were causing quite a scene now, but Penny could only laugh each time Sheldon shrieked in horror. It didn't matter who watched them now, they were in their own little world that only they understood. "That is not funny, Penny," he says when she's finished and she could just kiss him with the way his arms are folded across his chest like a stubborn child. But even he can't stop the half smile from turning on his lips.

Fifteen minutes later, Sheldon presents Penny with a lab coat and goggles. She can tell he's proud of the outfit but she wrinkles her nose and shakes her head. Sheldon knows well enough by now that this is the universal sign for 'try again' and he sighs in defeat as he goes back to the shelf. He returns with a mismatched pair of ballerina slippers and swim shorts and Penny can only look at him like he's crazy. Had she taught him nothing about fashion in the last ten years? When he returns next, he's looking so excited, Penny doesn't have the heart to turn him down. "Batman!" he says, holding the Batman costume up for her to see. And though Penny's not sure it's a right match for the bear, she nods her head in approval. Because relationships are about compromise. And if Sheldon's excited (or distracted) over the costume, at least he won't be too terrified of the bear. She hopes, at least.

It's thirty minutes later and after much convincing (and a bribe to stop at the comic book store on the way home), Penny gets Sheldon to make a wish on one of the red felt hearts. He knows it's illogical - wishes coming true are nothing but luck and luck is nothing more than odds and most wishes don't come true or else he'd have a Nobel Prize by now - but they wish together, both of their hands rubbing the heart for warmth and luck and Penny even thinks she sees Sheldon kissing it before he slips it into the bear's back.

They take another thirty minutes fighting over a name. Sheldon has been campaigning for Batman and Penny thinks _that_ is far more terrifying than anything the bear could do on it's own. She suggest all sorts of names: Philip and Shelly and Nicholas and Steven, but Sheldon rejects each one. "I'll rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock you for it," Penny challenges, when they reach an impasse. Sheldon agrees, on the terms that the winner gets to pick the name. And so they play, right in the middle of the store. Again, there are questioning looks and children that stop to stare as their mother's tug them along, but Penny triumphs easily over Sheldon. (It's not hard, Sheldon still throws Spock nine times out of ten). But she thinks, maybe, he's let her win because there's a sparkle in his eyes as he watches her break into a victory dance there by the little computers. So she does the only thing she can. "Bruce. We'll name him Bruce." It's a compromise, but after all, that's what they do.

They leave the store, hand in hand, an hour and a half after stepping foot into it. She can almost hear the sighs of relief coming from the staff and she wants to laugh at how one of the boys rushes to lock the door, just in case. She's sure they'll never be allowed in Build a Bear again, but that's just fine. Because Sheldon the Conqueror conquered one of his fears this afternoon. He still makes her put the bear in the trunk - he doesn't trust it in the backseat where he can't see it on the long drive home - but he did carry the box out to the car. And that, even if it's a baby step, is still a step in the right direction.

When they present the Build a Bear to their daughter for her birthday later that week, she gasps and cries and hugs the stuffed bear close to her chest while hugging her Mommy and Daddy. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she giggles and her small arms wrap even tighter around the bear as she looks at his Batman cape and cowl. "It's just what I wanted! How did you know, Daddy?!" Sheldon smiles now, so big (just like his daughter's) that his eyes sparkle, and he looks from their daughter to Penny with pride. "I told you she'd love it," he smirks matter-of-factly.


End file.
